How to monetize your job board website

by Michael Gabrian on 07/19/2017

Whether you have an existing job board website or you're considering building a new one, you should definitely consider ways of monetizing it. There are a couple of passive ways like allowing other companies to advertise on your site and this could even be really successful. There are some other ideas as well, like creating and selling high valued content to job seekers and recruiters.

Let's talk about some ideas on how to make money from a job board website.

Memberships

Providing membership options is a good way to find some form of income through any site in exchange for some extra services. We have two personas we need to consider, the job seeker and the recruiter, so a membership for both types would have to provide different benefits. Let's talk about some of the possibilities.

For job seekers

Finding work isn't easy and I think that anyone looking for a job will agree with me. College grads probably send out hundreds of application before actually getting an offer. Well, you have a website with tons of postings, but what can you include in a membership plan for them? I think the best plan would be to offer a membership plan targeting the aggressive job seekers that are aiming to stand out a bit more from the competition. This will be really effective if you target a niche industry.

Here are a few ideas you could include in membership packages:

Resume reviewing

Email alerts for new targeted jobs

Unlimited job applications per day, week, month, etc.

For recruiters

Recruiters are likely going through tons of applications to fill a position, many may not even be qualified. I imagine these employers would gladly pay for higher quality candidates to fill their positions, and you happen to have oodles of them.

So the idea would be to create membership packages that offer superior services. Depending on your capabilities, you could do a free and paid membership or several tiers with more and more services.

Here are a few ideas:

Priority listings that are pinned to the top of the page

Listings won't expire after a certain periods of time

Unlimited candidate applications

More job postings at a time

Regardless, there are a lot of services that you can provide that will make their jobs a lot easier, which is definitely something worth investing in.

Bonus resources

This might be my favorite section because of the amount of creativity and options you have. You have a lot of education you can share with job seekers and a lot of industry knowledge you can share with recruiters. Why not create some content and continue repurposing it?

For Job seekers

This will definitely take work and commitment, but if you provide resources that are worth buying, this could definitely be a solid source of income for your site. Anything geared towards professional development, personal growth, industry info and tips, etc.

Here are a couple of specific ideas:

Partner up with industry experts to create courses for professional development

Take your courses to the next step and provide digital certification

Create a forum for job seekers to connect and share ideas and resources

Sell ebooks or videos with advice for job seekers

For recruiters

You have direct access to tons of information that recruiters would definitely pay for. So all of those ideas in the job seeker section, you can absolutely twist it into content geared for recruiters.

Here are some examples of information you could have access to:

Organization size

Recruitment budget

Rough amount of job openings per year for specific titles

Skills some companies require for specific positions

It's hard to fathom how much content you could create with all of this information. Most of the content you do make with this information could also be repurposed into insights for job seekers as well.

Third-party advertising

Another way to make some money through your job board website is to offer some ad space for other companies. I know, it could ruin some of the aesthetics of your design, but since your site is so niche specific, the targeted ads actually have the potential to be really successful.

Using AdSense

There are two options I'd like to talk about, the first being AdSense. Think of it like putting a couple of ads on your site and making money based on visitors or clicks.

This is all well and good, but to really boost your income from this source, you'll need to get tons of traffic, and I mean a lot of visitors. This might be hard especially with SEO and competition being big factors. I think this could be a great supplement, but don't count on it being your main source of income.

Directly selling ad space

You could also try selling ad space on your website to relevant companies with relevant content. Let's say that your job board focuses on software developer positions. What types of companies would provide ads that are relevant towards the people who are on your site?

The benefit of this option is that you can name a flat price for the space and the money you make won't depend on the traffic and such like with AdSense.

One thing to note for both options: I'd definitely suggest monitoring your traffic and seeing if having ads on your site does have a huge negative effect on your site. Hopefully, the money you make from the ads will offset that loss of visitors. You'll just have to see which one provides a greater benefit.

To conclude:

To monetize your job board website, luckily, you have a few different options, but maybe it would be best to try each one and see where you find the most personal success.

If you'd like help coming up with a content strategy, click the image below.